Kamran Sarwar: Course instructor Business Management

Briefly explain seven dimension of culture

The concept of organizational culture has been around for decades and started to gain
popularity beyond academic circles in the 1980s. Today it seems that most corporate
leaders actively think about their company’s culture daily or weekly. Certainly it is on
the minds of Kevin Rollins and Michael Dell at Dell Inc. What is this abstract thing we
call organizational culture?
Organizational culture
Organizational culture has been described as the shared values, principles, traditions,
and ways of doing things that influence the way organizational members act. In most
organizations, these shared values and practices have evolved over time and determine,
to a large extent, how “things are done around here. (Stephen P. Robbins, 2012)
The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one
human group from another…. Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and
values are among the building blocks of culture. (Hofstede, 1984)
Our definition of culture implies three things:
1. Culture is a perception
It’s not something that can be physically touched or seen, but employees perceive it on
the basis of what they experience within the organization. These assumptions
are so deep that they are taken for granted—they are so obviously good and right for
the company that no one really thinks about or questions them. Dell’s focus on winning
the competition game had been so successful over the years that no one questioned it.
Even when Dell’s executives realized that the company’s winning culture had changed
into one that focused too much on the company’s stock price, they didn’t try to disturb
the underlying emphasis on winning.
2. Culture is descriptive
It’s concerned with how members perceive the culture and describe it, not with whether
they like it. Proctor & Gamble’s culture had been so successful for so long that it would
be ridiculous to question it. This culture remained intact even when P&G lost market
share during the late 1990s to more customer -focused competitors. P&G’s chief
executive at the time tried to change the culture, complaining that he would “like to
have an organization where there are rebels.” The CEO underestimated the depth of
shared assumptions. After pushing through culture changes for two years, he was
replaced. His successor, A.G. Lafley, was more successful by taking a gentler but
equally persistent approach to making employees aware that P&G’s old culture was
dysfunctional
3. Shared aspect of culture
Individuals may have different backgrounds or work at different organizational levels;
they tend to describe the organization’s culture in similar terms. That’s the shared
aspect of culture. At Dell, employees place a high priority on winning, meaning that
they value performance and achievements more than, say security or tradition.

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Government Post Graduate College of Commerce, Gujrat
Kamran Sarwar: Course instructor Business Management

Dimension of Organizational culture

Research suggests seven dimensions that can be used to describe an organization’s
culture. These dimensions range from low to high, meaning it’s not very typical of the
culture (low) or is very typical of the culture (high). Describing an organization using
these seven dimensions gives a composite picture of the organization’s culture. In many
organizations, one cultural dimension often is emphasized more than the others and
essentially shapes the organization’s personality and the way organizational members
work.

1. Attention to detail
In a business sense, attention to detail essentially means focus that is directed on the
multiple small tasks or concerns that make up a larger task or concern. It is considered
an asset for employees in almost any field. Those who wish to cultivate this quality may
be able to do so by making a few small changes to their work routine. It was the
William Cooper proctor of the Proctor and Gamble who ran the company with a
slogan, “Do what is right”
2. Outcomes orientation
The corporate managers are hired to make the achievement of goals possible. They
should focus only on the achievement of goals not on how these outcomes should be
achieved. At Du pont’s Towanda plant in Pennsylvania, the people are asked about
the targets then they have complete freedom to set their own schedules to achieve the
corporate goals.
3. People orientation
The organization is surviving because of its people. Therefore, it should take into
account the effect of its decision on its people. Southwest Airlines has made its
employees a central part of its culture

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Government Post Graduate College of Commerce, Gujrat
Kamran Sarwar: Course instructor Business Management

4. Team orientation
The workers in the organizations are normally preferred to work as a team rather than
individuals. It is necessary for supporting competitive culture and environment. At Du
pont’s Towanda plant in Pennsylvania, people are organized in self directing teams.
The employees have a great freedom to set their own schedules, solve their own
problems and participate in selecting coworkers.
5. Aggressiveness
The employees should have the aggression and aggressive attitude rather being
cooperative. IBM has the unique name for having aggressive employees. Its culture
supports them to be aggressive.
6. Stability
The decisions in the corporate sectors are emphasizing on maintaining the status quo. A
high respect for tradition and a strong preference for upholding rules and procedures,
the company may suffer because of its culture. In other words, just as having the “right”
culture may be a competitive advantage for an organization, having the “wrong”
culture may lead to performance difficulties, may be responsible for organizational
failure, and may act as a barrier preventing the company from changing and taking
risks
7. Innovation and risk taking
Innovations and risk taking are indispensible part of the business success. The
employees in the organizations are encouraged to be innovative and risk taker. It was
the Edwin land, the founder of Polaroid, who created a favorable organizational
environment for research and innovations. At Sony Corporation the focus is product
innovation (innovation and risk taking). The company “lives and breathes” new
product development and employees’ work behaviors support that goal.
Strong Cultures
All organizations have cultures, but not all cultures equally influence employees’
behaviors and actions. Strong cultures—those in which the key values are deeply held
and widely shared—have a greater influence on employees than do weaker cultures.

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Government Post Graduate College of Commerce, Gujrat
Kamran Sarwar: Course instructor Business Management

How Employees Learn Culture

Employees “learn” an organization’s culture in a number of ways. The most common are
stories, rituals, material symbols, and language
ORGANIZATIONAL STORIES AND LEGENDS
Many years ago Southwest Airlines introduced an ad campaign with the phrase “Just Plane
Smart.” Unknowingly the Dallas-based airline had infringed on the “Plane Smart” slogan at
Stevens Aviation, an aviation sales and maintenance company in Greensville, South Carolina.
Rather than paying buckets of money to lawyers, Stevens chairman Kurt Herwald and
Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher decided to settle the dispute with an old-fashioned arm-wrestling
match at a run-down wrestling stadium in Dallas. A boisterous crowd watched the “Malice in
Dallas” event as “Smokin” Herb Kelleher and “Kurtsey” Herwald battled their designates and
then each other. When Kelleher lost the final round to Herwald, he jested (while being carried
off on a stretcher) that his defeat was due to a cold and the strain of walking up a flight of
stairs. Stevens Aviation later decided to let Southwest Airlines continue to use its ad campaign,
and both companies donated funds from the event to charities. Malice in Dallas is a legend that
almost every Southwest employee knows by heart. It is a tale that communicates one of the
maverick airline’s core values—that having fun is part of doing business. Stories and legends
about past corporate incidents serve as powerful social prescriptions of the way things should
(or should not) be done. They also provide human realism to corporate expectations, individual
performance standards, and assumptions about ideal behaviors and decisions.
Not all stories and legends are positive. Some are communicated to demonstrate what is
wrong with the dominant corporate culture. Some time ago General Motors (GM) was known
for its strong hierarchical culture, in which employees were expected to respect the position
and power of their higher -ups. Employees who rejected the automaker’s dominant culture
liked to tell how dozens of GM people would arrive at the airport to meet a senior executive.
An executive’s status was symbolized by the number of vehicles leaving the airport with the
executive; but critics told this story to illustrate the decadence and time wasted in serving
GM’s leaders rather than other stakeholders. Stories are important artifacts because they
personalize the culture and generate emotions that help people remember lessons within these
stories. Stories have the greatest effect at communicating corporate culture when they
describe real people, are assumed to be true, and are remembered by employees throughout
the organization. Stories are also prescriptive—they advise people what to do or not to do.
RITUALS AND CEREMONIES
Rituals are the programmed routines of daily organizational life that dramatize an
organization’s culture. They include how visitors are greeted, how often senior executives visit
subordinates, how people communicate with each other, how much time employees take for
lunch, and so on. BMW is well known for its fast-paced culture, which is soon apparent quite
literally in how quickly employees walk around the German carmaker’s offices. “When you
move through the corridors and hallways of other companies’ buildings, people kind of crawl—
they walk slowly,” says BMW board of management chair Helmut Panke. “But BMW people
tend to move faster.”
Ceremonies are more formal artifacts than rituals. Ceremonies are planned activities conducted
specifically for the benefit of an audience, such as publicly rewarding (or punishing) employees
or celebrating the launch of a new product or newly won contract.
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Government Post Graduate College of Commerce, Gujrat
Kamran Sarwar: Course instructor Business Management

ORGANIZATIONAL LANGUAGE
The language of the workplace speaks volumes about the company’s culture. How employees
address coworkers, describe customers, express anger, and greet stakeholders are all verbal
symbols of cultural values. Employees at The Container Store complement each other about
“being Gumby,” meaning that they are being as flexible as the well-known green toy—going
outside their regular jobs to help a customer or another employee. (A human-sized Gumby is
displayed at the retailer’s headquarters. Language also highlights values held by organizational
subcultures. For instance, consultants working at Whirlpool kept hearing employees talk about
the appliance company’s “PowerPoint culture.” This phrase, which names Microsoft’s
presentation software, is a critique of Whirlpool’s hierarchical culture in which communication
is one-way (from executives to employees).
MATERIAL ARTIFACTS AND SYMBOLS
When you walk into different businesses, do you get a “feel” for what type of work
environment it is—formal, casual, fun, serious, and so forth? These reactions demonstrate the
power of material symbols or artifacts in creating an organization’s personality. The layout of an
organization’s facilities, how employees dress, and the types of automobiles provided to top
executives, and the availability of corporate aircraft are examples of material symbols. Others
include the size of offices, the elegance of furnishings, executive “perks” (extra benefits
provided to managers such as health club memberships, use of company-owned facilities, and
so forth), employee fitness centers or on-site dining facilities, and reserved parking spaces for
certain employees.
At WorldNow, a business that helps local media companies develop new online distribution
channels and revenue streams, an important material symbol is an old dented drill that the
founders purchased for $2 at a thrift store. The drill symbolizes the company’s culture of
“drilling down to solve problems.” When an employee is presented with the drill in recognition
of outstanding work, he or she is expected to personalize the drill in some way and devise a
new rule for caring for it. One employee installed a Bart Simpson trigger; another made the drill
wireless by adding an antenna. The company’s “icon” carries on the culture even as the
organization evolves and changes. Material symbols convey to employees who is important and
the kinds of behavior (for example, risk taking, conservative, authoritarian, participative,
individualistic, and so forth) that are expected and appropriate.

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Government Post Graduate College of Commerce, Gujrat